Chop saws and miter saws are commonly found on jobsites because of their versatility and ability to make cuts that other power tools cannot make quickly. Typically a chop saw has a base assembly and a saw assembly attached to the base that can be lowered into a cutting position. One such chop saw illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 6,272,960, which is fully incorporated herein by reference.
A miter saw is a chop saw that has a rotatable table in its base assembly for allowing miter cuts. Some miter saws, such as the one illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 5,297,463, which is fully incorporated herein by reference, have a beveling saw assembly, which allows bevel cuts, i.e., inclined cuts relative to the workpiece-supporting plane of the base assembly and/or table. In addition, in some miter saws, the saw assembly may beveled rightwardly and leftwardly from a zero-bevel position, i.e., 90 degrees relative to the workpiece-supporting plane. One such chop saw illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 7,252,027, which is fully incorporated herein by reference.
Referring to FIGS. 1-3, the chop saw 10 has a base assembly 12, which includes a rotatable table 14. A fence assembly 16 is connected to base assembly 12.
Saw assembly 18 is pivotally attached to table 14. Saw assembly 18 includes a trunnion 17 which is rotatably connected to table 14. Trunnion 17 carries a hinge 17H. A pivot arm 19 is pivotably attached to hinge 17H. Pivot arm 19 supports a motor 27 in a housing 27H. Motor 27 is operably connected to a blade 22 for driving blade 22. A transmission 29 may connect motor 27 to blade 22.
An upper portion of blade 22 may be covered by an upper guard 23, which is supported by pivot arm 19. A movable lower guard 24 may be rotatably attached to upper guard 23. Lower guard 24 covers a lower portion of blade 22 until the pivot arm 19 (and thus saw assembly 18) is moved downwardly in a chopping action. A linkage (not shown) moves lower guard 24 to expose the lower portion of blade 22 for cutting a workplace.
Chop saw 10 has a handle 28 for lowering pivot arm 19 (and thus saw assembly 18) in the chopping action. In addition, chop saw 10 may have a carrying handle 26.
One problem with prior art chop saws is that they may be unwieldy to carry. Users tend to carry them by holding the base assembly 12 with both hands (FIG. 1), or carrying them by the carrying handle 26 (FIG. 2). Because of the typical placement of components, when carrying chop saw 10 by the carrying handle 26, the center of gravity CG tends to be misaligned and not directly underneath carrying handle 26 and/or the workpiece-supporting plane of base assembly 12 and/or table 14 is inclined, rather than substantially horizontal or substantially vertical.
Prior art chop saws tend to have a bulky envelope. Even when chop saw 10 is in its most compact form, a chop saw that carries a 12 inch (304.8 mm) blade would require a 660 mm×570 mm×385 mm (144,837 cubic centimeters) package 10P or larger (FIG. 3). Similarly, a chop saw that carries a 10 inch (254 mm) blade would require a 550 mm×475 mm×321 mm (83,861 cubic centimeters) package or larger.